The Center for Freeform Optics
An Industry/University Cooperative Research Center

How good is your lens? Assessing performance with MTF full-field displays

Brandon Dube, Roger Cicala, Aaron Closz, and Jannick P. Rolland

in Applied Optics

Modern optical systems achieve incredible resolution and require more thorough testing. We present a method of evaluating and displaying the modulation transfer function (MTF) of a lens over its full rectangular field of view. The method consists of utilizing commercially available MTF test stations to gather data as well as custom software to plot the results. Critically, these measurements allow the characterization of misaligned systems with much higher accuracy than the typical three- or five-field-point MTF measurements yield. Examples are provided of both well-centered and poorly centered systems.